Subject Librarian
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Course description
Recognizing the intrinsic value of Black lives and Black storytelling across media platforms, this course will explore the staging of Black theatre texts in virtual reality (VR) and related XR technology. Participants will explore VR technology at the intersection of Black cultural storytelling through the performance of monologues and scenes as well as design/tech, music and movement culminating into a pilot production of Marita Bonner’s The Purple Flower (1928), a non-realistic, one-act play that pushes the boundaries of theatrical staging. No prior experience or prerequisites required.
[Source: ORC/Catalog, 08/30/2023]; Dist:ART; WCult:CI
In the Library's collections
You can use one of these subject headings to start your research in the library's online catalog:
- the purple flower AND criticism AND marita bonnerThis is a keyword search in the online catalog.
- marita bonner AND criticismThis is a keyword search in the online catalog.
- african americans AND storytellingThis is a keyword search in the online catalog.
- folklore AND african americansThis is a subject keyword search.
Introductory reading(s)
A companion to twentieth-century American drama by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781405110884This Companion provides an original and authoritative survey of twentieth-century American drama studies, written by some of the best scholars and critics in the field.
Historical dictionary of African American theater by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2270 .A35 H53 2009ISBN: 9780810862760African American Theater is a vibrant and unique entity enriched by ancient Egyptian rituals, West African folklore, and European theatrical practices. A continuum of African folk traditions, it combines storytelling, mythology, rituals, music, song, and dance with ancestor worship from ancient times to the present. It afforded black artists a cultural gold mine to celebrate what it was like to be an African American in The New World. The Historical Dictionary of African American Theater celebrates nearly 200 years of black theater in the United States, identifying representative African American theater-producing organizations and chronicling their contributions to the field from its birth in 1816 to the present. ...
Living with stories: telling, re-telling, and remembering by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780874216905In essays about communities as varied as Alaskan Native, East Indian, Palestinian, Mexican, and African American, oral historians, folklorists, and anthropologists look at how traditional and historical oral narratives live through re-tellings, gaining meaning and significance in repeated performances, from varying contexts, through cultural and historical knowing, and due to tellers' consciousness of their audiences.
Talk that talk: an anthology of African-American storytelling by Call Number: Baker-Berry GR 111 .A47 T35 1989ISBN: 9780671671686Overflowing with wisdom and humor, here is a comprehensive collection of favorite tales from the vigorous and vibrant oral tradition of African American folklore. Transcending a history of oppression and struggle, Black storytelling is an expression of great social complexity and profound aesthetic significance. Woven into its fabric is the essence of Black language, lifestyle, and survival. Talk That Talk contains close to one-hundred stories by famous storytellers from America, Africa, and the Caribbean--plus insightful commentaries from historians and critics. ...
Selected book title(s)
Encyclopedia of African American women writers by Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. PS 153 .N5 E49 2007ISBN: 9780313334290African American women writers published extensively during the Harlem Renaissance and have been extraordinarily prolific since the 1970s. This book surveys the world of African American women writers. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on more than 150 novelists, poets, playwrights, short fiction writers, autobiographers, essayists, and influential scholars. ...
Modern drama by women 1880s-1930s: an international anthology by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 6119.8 .M63 1996ISBN: 9780415124942Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s offers the first direct evidence that women playwrights helped create the movement known as Modern Drama. It contains twelve plays by women from the Americas, Europe and Asia, spanning a national and stylistic range from Swedish realism to Russian symbolism. Six of these plays are appearing in their first English-language translation. ....
Other library resource(s)
Virtual reality from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe early 20th century saw the coalescence of several representation technologies: moving-image photography, audio recording, stereoscopy, and color imaging. Many technologists, particularly filmmakers, imagined these technologies would one day provide an exact replica of the world as we experience it. This possibility was articulated in Henry Weinbaum’s 1932 short story Pygmalion’s Spectacles that accurately predicted later virtual reality (VR) headsets through his description of goggles that transport the user to another world. ...
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
You can find scholarly literature for film and television studies in a variety of journals. However, if you want to do targeted searching, you can use a subject specific database such as Film & Television Literature Index. You can also use the search box at the top of the page.
MLA international bibliography by Call Number: Electronic resourceMLA International Bibliography indexes journal articles, books and dissertations. Coverage includes literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- Black Imagination - Black PerformanceFounded in 2017, Crux is the only company focusing solely on bringing XR artistic content from Black creators to mainstream users and audiences. ...
- Discovering Great-Great-Aunts Mary and Martha: The Impact of the Oral Storytelling TraditionWhen members of Angelica Chéri’s family told her stories about her great-great-aunts Mary and Martha Clarke, two African American women who passed for White and were believed to have been outlaws in post-emancipation Texas, she became heir to a rich and powerful tradition in African American culture – oral storytelling. ...
- The future of theater in NYC extends into virtual realityTheater artists are exploring technologies like virtual reality to expand what live performance can be. ...
- Pandemic Forces Radical Reimagining of What Theater Can BeWhen, way back in the mid-1970s, pop star Billy Joel was compelled to write a song about the approaching collapse of the American empire, he began his lurid tale of ruin and destruction with a nod to theater. To strike a suitably apocalyptic tone, he chose as the song’s first line: “I’ve seen the lights go out on Broadway.” ...
- Virtual reality documentary ‘Traveling While Black’ creates immersive experienceWalking into a 50s-style diner and donning a video headset is not how the typical documentary begins. ...
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.